Previous

Mormon is a Christian Part Two | HubPages. Mormon was a philosopher and literary genius, the most famous Mormon in the world. He, however, did not make his own religion. Mormon was a man who never intended for people to call a faith after his name.

Chief Captain Mormon

Mormon lived during the Fourth Century AD--presumably on the North American continent. He was a prophet of God, an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, a historian and a general. As a prophet and historian, his message was meant for a latter-day and his historical records were limited causing much debate for its translator Joseph Smith.

Mormon's purpose is clear in the record as he compiled and abridged the countless numbers of writings to include in The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ "...to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations...."

Source

Society at The Time of Mormon

For generations. the people of Lehi (The Founding Father of Civilization in Ancient America) experienced a time of peace and prosperity after Jesus Christ manifested Himself to this group of people that lasted 194 years before factions again began to spread in the land.

A group of people parted from the Church of Jesus Christ and took upon themselves the name of Lamanites.

During the time of the reign of Christ in the land, the people removed the appellations that separated them from each other and all took on the name of Christ or Christian.

Toward the end of the second generations of Christians in America--using 100 years as one generation--this break-away group decided that the Church did not represent what it believed anymore.

Mormon's society fulfilled Lehi's dream as fewer and fewer partook of he tree of life and went to the spacious building with no foundation.

Source

A generation as used in the context of the Book of Mormon generally means 100 years. Read about Lehi's dream in the Book of Mormon.

This break-away of distraught Christians during the rise of the third generation after Christ's visit to ancient America was the catalyst for division in the society of the children of Lehi again. According to Mormon, those people left the church to become a separate people all together and paved the way for classism that changed society. About ten years following the schism the communal law of Christ that was prevalent among them was also destroyed .

There is a four-fold purpose of the modern Church of Christ. Of the four, one being to care for the poor and the needy. Under the banner of this modern focus, the ancient church in America followed a similar policy. Caring for the poor by having all things in common helped Christians in ancient times fulfill their commitment to Christ and His teachings.

When Mormon's society started to have differing views and groups form, the ability of the church to function was greatly diminished and the services among the poor were frustrated in the church--changed because society started to become more secular.

The Great and Spacious Building with No Foundation

Source

In addition, Mormon reveals that The Church of Jesus Christ began to have members file off from the church with the idea that specific teachings constituted the forming of new churches. These people following their apostasy would then began to persecute the original church.

Just as in modern society, Mormon’s culture was a diversity of religions and political views. The more time passed from the visit of Christ that Mormon’s society experienced, the more divided, or diverse and brash society became. The church began to fail in its mission, and the members became wicked.

The people who left the church also began to form an even more significant division by separating into nations of opposition--Lamanites, Nephites, and other segments. The church members and like-minded people were called Nephites again, even though it, the church, began to suffer from apostasy. Though the physical descent was different for this new group of Lamanites and Nephites, being that the people by nationality were not necessarily descendants of Laman and Lemuel or Nephi and Sam, they took the names upon them in full knowledge of the history of those names.

The Lamanites chose to avoid teaching the faith of their youth from the true church to their children. This created a new group of people separated according to religion and tradition purposely instigated by unbelieving parents.

Whatever factors caused the society of former Christians to abandon their faith on such a grand magnitude was so poignant that they formed another or opposing culture. Possibly, they made contact with another group of people not mentioned in the record and drank in that culture.

Nothing in the current translation of The Book of Mormon suggests any particular reasons, which reason could be in the sealed portion of the record, other records kept by the people or none at all.

This spurred the same mixture of social poison that troubled the children of Lehi from the very beginning and set the scene for the decline of the church and society of the people of Nephi.

“…it came to pass that when three hundred and twenty years had passed away, Ammaron, being constrained by the Holy Ghost, did hide up the records which were sacred—yea, even all the sacred records which had been handed down from generation to generation, which were sacred—even until the three hundred and twentieth year from the coming of Christ.”

Though Mormon was not ready to obtain the records of Ammaron, he at the age of 15 was prepared to take a leadership role among his people in the military.

Source

Power To Remain

Mormon states that the spirit of the Lord did cease to strive with his compatriots and that miracles did cease among them because they were too wicked to merit them.

In this failing moral environment, Mormon receives an exception from God. Mormon describes how he received visitations of the spirit and acknowledgment of heaven to soothe him while surrounded by a jaded culture.

"I was visited of the Lord," he wrote, “and tasted and knew of the goodness of Jesus.” Mormon 1:15

Despite the terrible environment, Mormon received instruction in the gospel of Jesus Christ. There may have been some small pockets of true Christians to bolster up his spirits though not recorded in current editions of the record. Mormon senior receives no mention in these records other than being Mormon's father. Additionally, Mormon does not mention his family—siblings or spouse throughout the entire history save for a son, Moroni.

Mormon continues:

And I did endeavor to preach unto this people, but my mouth was shut, and I was forbidden that I should preach unto them; for behold they had willfully rebelled against their God; and the beloved disciples were taken away out of the land, because of their iniquity. Mormon 1:11

What do You Think?

If your nation rejected everything you believed, would you remain loyal and support it thy way Mormon did?

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)

Google AdSense Host API

This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

Facebook Login

You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

Maven

This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)

We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.

Conversion Tracking Pixels

We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.

Statistics

Author Google Analytics

This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)

Comscore

ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)

Amazon Tracking Pixel

Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)